MassHealth

What You Will Need to Navigate the Process

MassHealth is a state- and federally-funded program that assists qualifying individuals with the cost of community (in-home) and long-term (nursing home) care.  In general, it is relatively easy to establish eligibility for most individuals or members of married couple.  In some cases, the care is free and, in others, the applicant is required to contribute a portion of the applicant’s income.  For sure, assets should never be transferred to a third party without consulting with an experienced elder law attorney. These documents are intended to help understand the MassHealth application process, strategies for preserving assets, and when an applicant contribution may be required:

Forms you Will Need to Apply for MassHealth

We provide the MassHealth fillable and savable application, instructions for completing the form, and the list of documents which need to accompany the form, with the hope that families can apply for MassHealth on their own.  However, if you want our MassHealth Specialist to review your work or to handle the entire application, we may be able to assist you, depending upon how busy we are with other applications.  No documents should be dropped off or mailed to our office without a consultation with one of our attorneys to ensure that we have the capacity to help and that there will be a successful outcome.

Forms You Will Need if the Applicant is Placing Excess Assets in a Pooled Trust (Prior to March 1, 2024)

Unmarried individuals have very few options for preserving assets from skilled-nursing home expenses. The most common strategy, for those not wishing to spend down their assets on their care, is to place assets exceeding $2,000 into a pooled trust account.  Placing assets into a pooled trust account typically establishes immediate MassHealth eligibility and the funds continue to be available to the applicant for the rest of the applicant’s life. Despite the fact that MassHealth will make a claim for reimbursement from the funds remaining in the account, following the death of the applicant, there are several benefits to this strategy. Most significantly, it ensures ongoing funds will be available for the applicant (beyond the $2,000 program limit) and, in some cases, results in unused funds passing to family members.

Additional Resources